


Making A Promise

by Maeve_of_Winter



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Introspection, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-14 19:59:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13597281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maeve_of_Winter/pseuds/Maeve_of_Winter
Summary: Just days away from transferring to Southside High, Jughead reaches a conclusion about his relationship with Betty.





	Making A Promise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elenajames](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenajames/gifts).



> Thanks to everyone reading! If you ever want to chat, here's my [Tumblr](http://maeve-of-winter.tumblr.com/). I love discussion and hearing people's thoughts, so feel free to submit ideas or just talk Riverdale.

Betty helped him to the couch, and Jughead collapsed onto the cushions gratefully, glad to not have to put weight onto his throbbing ankle any longer.

“Here, let me take a look at that,” Betty said, swiftly relocating the laptop and books that had been piled on the couch beside him onto the coffee table. She then knelt before him to pull off his boot and sock.

As she moved around him, Jughead caught the scent that clung to her skin: she smelled like motor oil and engine grease. He smiled in spite of the sting in his ankle, knowing that she must have been working on a car before going out to sleuth with him.

“No swelling,” Betty observed, finishing with her examination. “Probably just a twist and not a sprain. You should by all better by tomorrow.” She stood up to give Jughead a pat on the shoulder. “I’ll get you some ice. Do you need anything else?”

As if in response, Jughead’s stomach rumbled, and he gave a sheepish shrug. “Maybe some of that casserole Kevin brought over?”

Betty grinned at him and walked over to the small kitchen. “You’ve got it.”

She opened the fridge and dug out one of the various meals Kevin had prepared for Jughead, bringing them over within hours of hearing about his father’s arrest. All of the food, from pasta to cheesecake, had been carefully labelled with dates and notes of if the contents should be eaten immediately or if it was safe to freeze. To return Kevin’s act of generosity, Jughead had scrounged up a fifth of vodka that his father had left behind, and then the two of them had shared a toast in memoriam to Kevin’s now concluded relationship with Joaquin.

It was strange to consider that he and Kevin were friends now, but once he’d become Betty’s boyfriend, her two best friends, Kevin and Veronica, had become his friends as well. Given his previously limited social circle of Archie and Betty, Jughead was grateful for it. He couldn’t help but feel that gaining two new friends demonstrated what he now considered to be a central tenant in his life: dating Betty was one of the best things that had happened to him in a very long time.

As Jughead watched Betty carefully dish casserole onto two mismatched plates, he was flooded by panic that with his upcoming transfer to Southside High, these times were coming to an end. No more playing detective together like they were Nick and Nora Charles, no more of these quiet moments where they simply shared a meal together.

Desperation coursed through him at the possibility of his relationship with Betty and all that it represented abruptly ending, and he was filled by one insistent urge: to ensure that didn’t happen. As Betty moved to the couch to set down the two plates and silverware on the coffee table, his panic drove him to speak before he even had the words ready.

“Betty, I—”

Jughead wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to say in that moment. An urge rose in his chest to promise her that even when he began going to Southside High, they would always be together. A promise that he wouldn’t let anything change between them despite being separated.

But in the end, he knew it wouldn’t be fair to promise anything like that. Maybe it was the looming uncertainty of what the next week would bring, maybe it was paranoia that with the recent hurricane of fiascos in his life, any attempt he made to stabilize anything would result in him being instantaneously struck down for his efforts.  

Betty looked at him expectantly. “Yeah, Jug?”

Jughead hated to admit it, but he was in no place to make any kind of promises. It wouldn’t be fair to Betty, not when he had no idea what disaster or misfortune life was going to lay at his feet next.

The temptation to make a promise to her still stuck in his throat, but he forced it down, even though his stomach twisted unpleasantly when he did.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” he said instead, the words feeling like they were being torn out of him. “Thanks for helping me out like this, getting me home and all that.”

“Silly.” Betty leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “What else was I going to do? Leave you there?”

She snuggled up close to him, and though Jughead was deep in thought, he reflexively wrapped an arm around her shoulders. A dual torrent of emotions washed over him: happy contentedness at her closeness and the warmth of her body pressing against his, and dread mixed with fear that soon there would no longer be any more of these types of moments between them.

He couldn’t let that happen. Bad luck had conspired with the general unfairness of life itself to force his parents apart, split him up from his mother and sister, and then take away his father as well. Jughead refused to also let Betty be taken away.

While he couldn’t make a promise to Betty, he could at least make a promise to himself. And as he sat there on the couch holding Betty, he silently vowed that even when he started at Southside High, he wouldn’t let anything come between them. Not their different schools, not the Serpents, not Betty’s class-obsessed parents.

Jughead kissed Betty in return. “I want things to be this way for us forever.”

She chuckled. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

When she spoke, she looked at him directly, a type of good-natured resignation in her eyes. In that moment, Jughead knew that Betty had reached the same conclusion: once he started attending Southside, sustaining their relationship would be much more difficult than it was now, even with all that had already happened.

The cold reality was that things were changing for him, and it was unlikely the changes would stop anytime soon, especially not when he needed to start adjusting to life at Southside. Jughead had no doubt that somehow he would be changed by the events; it was almost inevitable.

But, Jughead resolved, he wouldn’t let any of those changes affect him and Betty.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone reading! If you ever want to chat, here's my [Tumblr](http://maeve-of-winter.tumblr.com/). I love discussion and hearing people's thoughts, so feel free to submit ideas or just talk Riverdale.


End file.
